Air India’s subsidiary Alliance Air is going to offer flights from Bhopal to Jabalpur, Raipur, Pune and Hyderabad as an initiative by the government to improve the connectivity between Tier 2 cities. A 70-seater turboprop aircraft of the airline will now make its base at Bhopal.

“All these flights will be part of the connect India scheme,” a Senior Air India executive said. Cities like Jabalpur, Indore and many other have grown over the years and they need air connectivity. These flights improving connectivity between Tier 2 cities will also provide traffic to Air India for its International and other networks.

Currently, Alliance Air offers flights from Kolkata to the northeastern region, from Bengaluru to Agathe and Cochin, and from Mumbai to cities of Gujarat and Maharashtra and now from Bhopal to Jabalpur, Raipur, Pune, and Hyderabad.

“Air India’s chairman Ashwani Lohani has written to all the state governments inviting for a meeting to discuss the possibility of having Alliance Air flights in their states,” said the executive.